Louisa Lawson
1888: 1 July - "The Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women" first published by Louisa Lawson, in Sydney. The Dawn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawn_(feminist_magazine) "The Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women was an early feminist journal published monthly in Sydney, Australia between 1888 and 1905.1 It was first published 15 May 1888 by Louisa Lawson using the pen name of Dora Falconer.2 The subtitle was later changed to A Journal for the Household.3 It became the official publication of the Australian Federation of Women Voters." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dawn_(feminist_magazine)#History "Louisa Lawson left her husband in 1883 and relocated her family to Sydney. There she supported her children through various jobs, including working as a seamstress and running a boarding house. During this period she was introduced to women's suffrage. In 1887 she purchased the Republican, a journal dedicated to Australian independence and, the following year, in 1888, she founded the Dawn.5 From the outset the Dawn was intended as a mouthpiece for women. In the first edition, Louisa Lawson, writing under the name of Dora Falconer, wrote: Every eccentricity of belief, and every variety of bias in mankind allies itself with a printing machine, and gets its singularities bruited about in type, but where is the printing-ink champion of mankind's better half? There has hitherto been no trumpet through which the concentrated voice of womankind could publish their grievances and their opinions ... Here then is Dawn, the Australian Woman's Journal and mouthpiece. — Dora Falconer, 15 May 1888Falconer, Dora (15 May 1888). "About Ourselves". The Dawn. 1''' (1): 1." "Nevertheless, the Dawn soon hit opposition: the Dawn was produced by an all-women team of editors and printers, and this fact angered trade unionists in the New South Wales Typographical Association,7 in part because women were paid substantially less than men.89 In fighting the Dawn, the association argued that the discrepancies in pay were such that men would be unable to compete, as women would be "… able to work for half the wages a man would require to keep himself and family in comfort and respectability",10 as well as arguing that the work was too dangerous for women to engage in.11 The association attempted to boycott the publication, and at one stage a member visited their offices to "harangue the staff" – only to be removed after having had a bucket of water thrown on them by Lawson.1213 Lawson won the battle through patience and "stern resistance" – eventually the boycott lost momentum, and the Dawn continued as it had before." Background https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisa_Lawson "'''Louisa Lawson (née Albury) (17 February 1848 – 12 August 1920) was an Australian poet, writer, publisher, suffragist, and feminist. She was the mother of the poet and author Henry Lawson." "Louisa Lawson was born on 17 February 1848 at Guntawang Station near Gulgong, New South Wales, the daughter of Henry Albury and Harriet Winn.12She was the second of 12 children in a struggling family, and like many girls at that time left school at 13. On 7 July 1866 aged 18 she married Niels Larsen (Peter Lawson), a Norwegian sailor, at the Methodist parsonage at Mudgee, New South Wales.1 He was often away gold mining or working with his father-in-law, leaving her on her own to raise four children – Henry 1867, Charles 1869, Peter 1873 and Gertrude 1877, the twin of Tegan who died at eight months. Louisa grieved over the loss of Tegan for many years and left the care of her other children to the oldest child, Henry. This led to ill feelings on Henry's part towards his mother and the two often fought. In 1882 she and her children moved to Sydney where she managed boarding houses." References Category:Australia Category:Civil Rights Category:Feminism Category:Poetry Category:Writers Category:Activists Category:Historical Astrology Category:Working Class